Author: Berti, Emanuele
Title: Ovidio, Cicerone e il finale delle Metamorfosi
Review/Collection: Philologus, vol. 168, no. 2
Year edition: 2024
Pages: 147-167
Keywords: Héritage - Fortuna - Legacy
Description: The finale of Ovid’s Metamorphoses contains a sphragis in which the poet proclaims the immortality of his poetic work and the eternal survival of his pars melior (Ov. Met. 15.871–879). These lines present a number of rather close parallels with excerpts from the seventh suasoria of Seneca the Elder’s collection, whose theme is Deliberat Cicero an scripta sua comburat promittente Antonio incolumitatem, si fecisset. Allusions to this declamatory exercise may activate in the Ovidian passage a reference to the theme of book-burning, evoked especially by the term ignis in line 871: this form of censorship against authors disliked by the imperial regime began to appear toward the end of Augustus’ principate, in the very same years when Ovid completed the composition of his Metamorphoses, before in turn being exiled by Augustus (an event to which the phrase Iovis ira, again in line 871, may allude). But at the same time, in the face of such a possible threat, Ovid affirms the certainty that his work will nonetheless prove stronger than fire and grant him perpetual life [Author].
Link: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/phil-2023-0042/html?srsltid=AfmBOorBd_LCp7rTYB5osCg0FlpUBqyQDmQtewrCNC7UK1DCX2xOug3M
Author initials: Berti 2024
Title: Ovidio, Cicerone e il finale delle Metamorfosi
Review/Collection: Philologus, vol. 168, no. 2
Year edition: 2024
Pages: 147-167
Keywords: Héritage - Fortuna - Legacy
Description: The finale of Ovid’s Metamorphoses contains a sphragis in which the poet proclaims the immortality of his poetic work and the eternal survival of his pars melior (Ov. Met. 15.871–879). These lines present a number of rather close parallels with excerpts from the seventh suasoria of Seneca the Elder’s collection, whose theme is Deliberat Cicero an scripta sua comburat promittente Antonio incolumitatem, si fecisset. Allusions to this declamatory exercise may activate in the Ovidian passage a reference to the theme of book-burning, evoked especially by the term ignis in line 871: this form of censorship against authors disliked by the imperial regime began to appear toward the end of Augustus’ principate, in the very same years when Ovid completed the composition of his Metamorphoses, before in turn being exiled by Augustus (an event to which the phrase Iovis ira, again in line 871, may allude). But at the same time, in the face of such a possible threat, Ovid affirms the certainty that his work will nonetheless prove stronger than fire and grant him perpetual life [Author].
Link: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/phil-2023-0042/html?srsltid=AfmBOorBd_LCp7rTYB5osCg0FlpUBqyQDmQtewrCNC7UK1DCX2xOug3M
Author initials: Berti 2024
